Why I built SendDock instead of paying for email tools

Every product that sends email eventually meets a pricing page. Transactional sends, waitlists, subscriber lists — the tools that handle them charge per email, per contact, per seat. The cost scales with your success, which means you get punished precisely for growing.

I got tired of that math. So I built SendDock.

The problem with renting your email

When you rent email infrastructure, two things happen. First, the bill climbs as your list grows — a few thousand contacts is cheap, a few hundred thousand is a line item you have to justify. Second, and worse: your subscribers live on someone else's server. Your most important asset is held behind an API you don't control and a price you don't set.

That's not a position I want to be in for my own products, and it's not one I want to put clients in either.

What SendDock actually is

SendDock is an open-source platform for developers: a clean API, waitlists, subscriber control, bulk delivery, and customizable templates. You self-host it, so the data is yours. It's built in Go and PostgreSQL with a Vue dashboard — boring, durable technology for something that needs to just work.

Why open source, not just "cheaper"

The goal was never a slightly cheaper SaaS. It was ownership. Open source means you can read exactly what happens to your data, run it on your own infrastructure, and never wake up to a pricing change or a shutdown email.

The domain here — sending mail, managing lists — is simple enough that it doesn't need to be a recurring tax. Building SendDock taught me that the real alternative to an expensive tool isn't a discount. It's owning the boring infrastructure yourself.